Psychoanalysis and Art

Donald Meltzer (1923-2004) is widely known as a psychoanalyst and teacher throughout Europe and South America. He is the author of many works on psychoanalytic theory and practice, including 'The Psychoanalytical Process', 'Sexual States of Mind', 'Explorations in Autism', 'The Kleinian Development', 'Dream Life', 'Studies in Extended Metapsychology', and 'The Claustrum', all published by Karnac Books. Sandra Gosso is a researcher in dynamic psychology at the University of Pisa, Italy where she also teaches Psychology of Art in the Cinema, Music and Theatre course (CMT). She has contributed to various books in the field of psychoanalysis and she is the author of 'Paesaggi delle mente: una psicoanalisi per l'estetica' (Franco Angeli, Milan 1997).

This essential edition brings together a collection of classic papers from key figures in Kleinian and post-Kleinian thought that explore the relationship between psychoanalysis and art.Sandra Gosso begins with a comprehensive and fascinating guide to the history of this relationship which began with Freud and was developed further by Melanie Klein at a time when most analysts were moving away from links with art. Melanie Klein's pivotal paper, "Infantile Anxiety Situations Reflected in a Work of Art and in the Creative Impulse", follows the Introduction. The other papers featured are mainly from British analysts who expanded on Melanie Klein's ideas, inspired by the influence of the creative Bloomsbury and Imago Groups. Members of the Imago Group, founded by Adrian Stokes, include Donald Meltzer, Wilfred Bion, Roger Money-Kyrle and Marion Milner; all of whom underwent analysis with Melanie Klein. Their interests range throughout the arts and this allows them to explore the relationship between art and psychoanalysis from varied and thought-provoking angles. The papers featured here investigate such core themes as the creative impulse, aesthetics, literature and symbol formation.This definitive volume is essential reading for students and professionals in the fields of psychoanalysis, art and cultural studies.

• Preface , Introduction , Art as Reparation , Infantile anxiety-situations reflected in a work of art and in the creative impulse , A psycho-analytical approach to aesthetics , Three unconscious phantasy of an inner world reflected in examples from literature , The role of illusion in symbol formation , The invitation in art , Post-Kleinian Thought , The apprehension of beauty , The delusion of clarity of insight , The relation of dreaming to learning from experience in patient and analyst , The aesthetic object , Concerning the perception of one's own attributes and its relation to language development , On turbulence , Dénouement , Aesthetic conflict: its place in the developmental process , The place of aesthetic conflict in the analytic process , New considerations on the concept of the aesthetic conflict , The geographic dimension of the mental apparatus , The compartments of the internal mother , Disorders of thought , The lobby of dreams , Aesthetic appreciation through symbolic congruence , Keats: soul-making , Entry to the claustrum , Parallel directions in psychoanalysis